[W]e need to acknowledge that violence begets violence. There are no violent people who were not first violated.

I am here because I want a place from which I can start over.

A long time ago, I learned to only share my war stories (I have many) with people with whom I feel a genuine and deep human connection. These stories are at once precious and painful – they need to be earned. They must be deserved by those who hear them.

I propose that we change its abbreviation from ISIL or ISIS into a new name that contains the initial letters of each country or lobby that contributed to its existence.

As we were leaving the camp, I wondered whether refugee and IDP camps are a sign of compassion towards displaced people, or are they signs of how far humans have gone in causing harm to each other?

The unimaginable atrocities inflicted on this city [Mosul] by a group of mercenaries known as ISIL should undoubtedly be considered one of the most horrendous crimes of the twenty-first century.

Hearing about any single human life lost anywhere in the world should never ever become old news.

Is it possible to write about Mosul without feeling as if I am chewing on a mouthful of rubble, blood, and broken glass?

There is no enemy. It is impossible to genuinely understand any human being and still consider them enemies. Enemies are a myth created to keep us killing each other, to distract us from what matters in this world. If there is an enemy, it is perhaps those who try to convince us that we have one.